Cousins sentenced to prison after pleading guilty in fatal robbery

Two cousins indicted on capital murder charges after a man was killed in an ambush in 2012 pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery this week and received 10- and 20-year prison sentences.

Corwon Curtis Martin, 26, and Jonathan Martin, 21, and two other men accompanied Jamelle “L.A.” Rasberry, 22, to an apartment complex on Ederville Road in east Fort Worth on Dec. 28, 2012, Tarrant County prosecutors said

Outside the apartment of Rasberry’s former girlfriend, with whom he had a child, the five waited for Johnny Williams, 25, who was dating the woman. The men believed that Williams was a prosperous drug dealer and intended to rob him, prosecutors said.

They waited several hours. When Williams arrived, Rasberry shot him in the chest with a .410 shotgun, authorities said. The men fled without taking any money, and Williams died on the sidewalk outside the apartment.

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All five were indicted on capital murder charges. In March, a jury convicted Rasberry of killing Williams, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The Martins pleaded guilty to lesser charges. On Monday, Jonathan Martin was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and on Wednesday, Corwon Martin was sentenced to 10 years.

“Rasberry was the shooter,” prosecutor Joshua Ross said. “It was our intent from the start to try him for capital murder. We made a decision on the more culpable and less culpable of the parties involved. The plea agreements are respective of that evaluation.”

The other suspects — Jason Villarreal, 28, and Javier Cordova, 21 — are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges this week, according to court documents. Prosecutors are recommending that the defendants receive 15 years in prison each, according to a status conference form filed in the Tarrant County district clerk’s office.

Warren St. John, the attorney who represented Corwon Martin, said the aggravated robbery conviction was the best resolution for Williams’ and Martin’s families.

Martin “knew there was going to be a robbery, but he had no idea there was going to revenge murder,” St. John said. “The state was very fair in the evaluation of the case.”

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